World To Be Annoyed With Mini-Electronic Pets, Pokemon Edition

Because the extinction of Giga Pets, Nano Babies and Tamagotchis (plus all similarly pointless knock-offs) wasn’t enough of a clue…

Introducing Pokewalkers!

With the announcement of the March 14 release date of the new Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver for Nintendo DS and DSi, also comes Pokemon’s latest accouterment: a pedometer/electronic pet. The Pokewalker comes included with both new games and is meant to keep your mind on playing by having you tote around a Pokemon character that will “walk” for points in the Pokemon universe as you walk around in reality. Says a press release:

“By walking, players earn Watts, which are used within the Pokéwalker to encounter and catch wild Pokémon or search for hidden items, and can be transferred into Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions to unlock new routes. There are even special versions of certain Pokémon that can only be found within routes on the Pokéwalker, giving players added incentive to keep their Pokémon with them wherever they go.”

Sounds like a gimmicky spin on a game code to me, but then again, it could pay off if dedicated players feel incentive to play based on the point volume gathered by doing nothing but carting this thing around.

At the very least all 36 members of the “They need to bring back nano babies, giga pets, and tamagotchis” Facebook group will be pleased. Great.